By Bisola Adeyemo
The residents of Peklata community, Kubwa extension in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, have called on government’s intervention in ending indiscriminate refuse dumping by cart pushers.
Indiscriminate disposal of solid wastes exposes humans to environmental degradation and widespread infectious diseases, such as cholera, diarrhea typhoid fever, waterway blockage which lead to an infestation of flies, ticks, and breeding of mosquitoes that cause malaria.
While speaking with NatureNews on Thursday, Judge Uduoa, one of the community leaders in Peklata layout, Kubwa extension lamented that the habit of dumping refuse in undesignated areas is common among the cart pushers.
He added that some of the cart pushers usually come from different places to dump cabbages making the environment unfit for human.
“Cart pushers dump refuse in an area that is not designated for it and this causes environmental hazards especially during the rainy season and the pollution becomes unbearable in the environment.
“On our part, we’ve reached out to the police within our environment of which we were permitted to mount a signpost with inscription, “no dumping of refuse by police order” in order to reduce the act.
“We also had meeting with the cart pushers chairman but nothing was done after given us his word.
“This bad habit of dumping refuse anyhow has also narrowed the raven of the stream, and if care is not taken, the water channel will be blocked which can cause flood during the rainy period.”
“As an individual, I have tried to stop cart pushers and some of the residents who involved in this habit but all to no avail,” another resident who stay close to the location stated.
While calling on governments for intervention, another resident, Mr. Emmanuel Izu said, “What we want from the government is proper Refuse Dump Site within every area strictly under the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) control.
“And also put a Strong ban on the so-called cart pushers. This is because all effort to stop them from this location always result in violence.’’
